Happy 2015, everybody! Rob and I are still in Richmond with my brother and some friends, but I wanted pop in and wish you all a very happy New Year. I hope you had wonderful celebrations with lots of people you love. 2014 was such a great year and I'm so excited for all the wonderful things to come in the next year!

It's so crazy that the holidays are finally coming to a close--it's been extremely relaxing and fun but I'm anxious to get back to a regular schedule soon! I'll be back later this weekend with some belated Friday Favorites and then will be taking in the last few days before real life resumes again.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy start to 2015!

Photo by V.A. Photography, from my bridal shoot last year.

Two weeks ago, I shared a link to a reader survey and I spent a lot of time with your answers. I responded in part with this post, but wanted to share a bit about what I learned from what you all had to say about my blog. It felt odd to gather your input and then not share what I was doing with it, so in the spirit of transparency and in an effort to do better, I'm writing this now.

First of all, I want to thank every one of you who took the time to answer and give me your feedback. My readers are so important to me and I really care about your thoughts and opinions. In general, the survey results reflected mostly sweet, reassuring, and positive responses about my writing, recipes, and personality; but there were definitely some negative reviews--mostly about the number of sponsored posts I've taken on in the past months.

I'm not someone who seeks out constructive criticism and then gets their feelings hurt about it, so I found a ton of value in the negative comments. My plans and goals for the next year have been strongly influenced by the things you didn't like in 2014. So here's where I am now: I hear you. But I feel like I'm at a crossroads. Blogging is fun, I think I'm good at it, it makes me happy, and I'm finally at the point where I'm earning enough money that I feel self-employed.

I want you to know that even though I take on a lot at times, I often do say no to things--there are plenty of brands out there that wouldn't be a great fit for Freckled Italian and I turn those down. But I will admit that this year, as my earnings grew, I got more and more ambitious about what was next. Ambition can be good and bad, of course, and now I'm ready to take a step back and do some reevaluating.

I will continue to work with brands because it's part of what I do, but in 2015, I will absolutely be taking on less sponsors and focusing on getting back to writing--getting back to the things you used to love about Freckled Italian. People also said they miss the once more frequent personal posts, and would like to see more things about marriage, friendship, and family. I would like to see that too, and sharing more from the heart is my main goal for 2015.

So what can you expect from Freckled Italian in the new year? Openness and much more writing. More photos, food, and entertaining. Exciting brand collaborations. More recipes and personal style posts. A YouTube channel. Hopefully some fun trips. And maybe a dog!

Thank you so much for reading this blog. It truly means the world to me and I have nothing but love for all of you.

Last year, Rob and some of our friends went to a huge party at a hotel in DC where my feet hurt and there was nothing but pasta in a cream sauce on an "all you can eat" buffet. We snuck off to actually have dinner and returned to spend New Year's Eve with our friends. It was loud and crowded, but our friends were there and we had fun.

We laughed about how much has changed this year as we headed home before midnight on New Year's Eve. We had a 9:30 dinner reservation, and both of us got dressed up and had a nice drink and ate delicious salad and serving after serving of meat at Fogo de Chao. We shivered as we walked to our car in the negative ten degree night, and I shook my head at the lines of twenty-two year olds in tee shirts and tank tops lined up outside of bars. I wanted to put a coat on them, and it made me feel so much older than I am.

I miss my family and my friends and the fun New Year's parties that took place on the East Coast without us, but at that moment, I was just happy to have a big coat on and to be spending the evening with Rob.

It's been a rough couple of weeks for me, but I'm happy. I'm so glad to see 2014 on my calendar--to be able to say, "We're getting married this year!" and to make a new list of goals. I still want to drink more water, write more often, and take time to really enjoy every day of this life, but there's more. I want my life to be something big and so far kind of unexplainable.

I hope all your dreams come true this year.

Photo credit: One more from V.A. Photography.

(See the first one I shared here.)